From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk

NEW: Break Out
Date: 19 Apr 1996

My last posted story "Specialist Skills" took three days to leave my
news server and bits of it have been arriving at random on other
people's servers ever since. It is on the gossamer archive though.

I'm hoping this one has more luck. It's in six parts and I'll try and
post them all tonight.

Break Out

This one's a X-file - but that may not be the way it looks when you
read part 1.
Someone on one of the news groups recently asked a "what if Scully
decided to get a life" question. This doesn't answer it, but does
have a play with the idea.
I've also used Cancer Man as a visitor to Skinner's office who does
still wield some power.

I've rated it R for violence - not particularly gratuitous but I
don't want other people's nightmares on my conscience.

Thanks to Sarah for acting as guinea pig/translator for this story
and for putting up with my incessant barrage of emails about where
would be a good place to go for a walk in Washington.

Joann

=========================================================

==========================

Mulder pulled his coat a little closer to keep out the rain that was
starting to fall. The darkening sky matched his mood. He ought to go
back to the car but he couldn't find the energy to. Getting wet
didn't matter. Actually, nothing much mattered.

A month of working alone had confirmed that he had lost his touch,
lost the ability and the will to work solo. Scully's conversation
with him that morning had told him that he was going to have to learn
it over again.

She had looked so happy. He was glad someone could make her happy.

--------------------

X-FILES OFFICE - earlier that day

Dana Scully padded into the office. The conference had gone
brilliantly, her email that morning had been full of grateful thanks.
Peer group recognition, something that had been missing from her
life for a while.

Of course, that wasn't all that had been missing from her life. But
in the last month, that had changed too. Mulder wasn't going to like
what she was going to tell him. She didn't like what she was going to
tell him. It was bound to happen, sooner or later, one of them was
going to want something more than a rewarding job. Biological clocks
are dangerous things. Her only regret was the need to relocate to San
Francisco. Not that she even regretted that, but she did regret
leaving the X-Files.

She quickly asked him about the kidnapping case. It must have been
horrible. She wished that she had been there with him. But she'd
heard from the VCS people what an amazing job he'd done.

Mulder had looked back at her, mumbled something about being glad it
was over and asked her what she'd been doing. She looked so happy,
positively glowing. Wonderful what a few weeks away from him had done
for her.

She started to recount the events of the last month. It was the only
way to explain how her life could change so dramatically in such a
short time. A broken wrist, that was all it had taken. Falling
downstairs over the dog. Of all the dumb things. But it had changed
her life.

She was fine, felt in perfect health, apart from the cast on her arm.
That was only going to keep her out of field work for a short time.
She didn't want to sit at home and mope. She had planned to use the
couple of weeks to get back up to speed on the latest forensic
developments and do some reading.

Of course, things never go quite as planned. Skinner had found the
perfect solution to two problems when he'd heard about Scully's
injury. Mulder could get shipped out to join the team in Seattle.
Their analyst had come home, stress having finally worn her down.
Scully would get the chance to prepare for her presentation at a
forensic medicine conference at the end of the month and meanwhile
she could do light duties as a lecturer at Quantico. Perfect.

Robert was home, completing a three month research assignment in
Washington before getting sent on to his next posting in San
Francisco. Dana had joked with him, childhood sweethearts reunited.
Well not quite but almost, teenage sweethearts at any rate. They'd
never really broken up, drifted apart to go to different colleges,
busy careers. But they kept in touch and regularly met at Christmas
parties, the weddings of mutual friends. They'd been on the odd date
during the first month or so he was in town, but she was away a lot
so they hadn't seen that much of one another. Then, suddenly confined
to base, she had no excuse not to go out with him and she didn't want
an excuse. By the end of the month they were together more time than
they were apart.

Funny that things had fallen into place like that. Funny that it
happened when Mulder was out of town. Well maybe that wasn't so
strange, if they'd been on their usual work routine, she might never
have had the time or the energy. And that would have been a pity.

And the weekend. The weekend had been just perfect. The proposal had
been a surprise but had seemed just right. He was moving out to San
Francisco in a couple of weeks. She'd already talked to Skinner about
it that morning. He was surprised but pleased for her. The relocation
was no problem. There was even a possibility that a promotion might
follow a little while later.

The only hard thing was leaving Mulder. And telling him.

But Mulder had listened in an attentive silence. Smiling at the
appropriate moments, nodding encouragement as she paused. He really
looked pleased for her. She was meeting Robert for lunch. Mulder
waved her out of the office.

She was walking on air.

Later that afternoon, Scully had returned to the basement to grab a
couple of files. Mulder had already left. She didn't like it when he
did out of character things like leave early. But she thought back to
their chat that morning, she'd done all the talking. If he was going
to be leaving early he wouldn't have had the chance to say. She
looked over at his desk, the final draft of his report on the Seattle
kidnapping case. She sat down and read.

By the time she put the report down, she felt drained. Like all the
joy and energy she'd been brimming with had suddenly poured away.

She had already known that it had been a bad case, kidnap and murder
of teenagers. Three taken at each full moon for the last four months.
She already knew that Mulder had done a brilliant job on it. She
hadn't noticed the state it had left him in. She was horrified that
she could have been so callous.

----------------

Mulder sat and watched the clouds rolling across the night sky. The
rain felt good. Full moon tonight. If they hadn't caught that guy
that would have meant another three kids taken, another three
families destroyed. A shiver. Nothing to do with the cold or the
rain.

He hadn't wanted to go out on the Seattle case. Equally there was no
way he was going to say no. He wouldn't have been able to handle the
guilt if he had said no.

He had picked up where the previous profiler had left off. She had
found herself the centre of hopes and attention on one job too many
and needed a rest. Once he'd seen the wood for the trees, Mulder had
sharpened the profile and revised the instructions to the
investigative team. A week later they knew the name and the last
permanent address of their killer.

It had taken another week to trace the killer to the trailer park
that had become his most recent home, but only an hour or so from
finding his trailer to finding him in a nearby bar. That was when
things had turned complicated. The kidnapper had seen the Bureau cars
and had panicked, seized a couple of hostages and now they were in a
siege. Mulder had been standing around, just waiting. Then a thought
had struck him.

They were assuming that all the teenagers were dead, but as yet none
of the bodies had been found. Terrified of the implications, Mulder
had tried to talk the operational commander into removing the sniper
team. They had to get the killer alive, he might have information
they needed. The commander had just tried to soothe him with
platitudes, telling him that they only shoot when they have to,
reminding him of standard operating procedures.

Mulder couldn't prove it. He'd never suggested it before. He had said
that the kids weren't being killed immediately, but he'd never
suggested that they might still be alive a couple of weeks after the
kidnapping. Evidence. Something to explain why they had to ignore
procedure.

So Mulder had driven back to the trailer home and seen it. Obvious.
Couldn't believe that he hadn't seen it before.

"What?" The operational commander was puzzling over his words.

"There's too much fresh food in the trailer, too much milk, too much
bread. He's keeping some of them alive." Mulder was talking too fast
but it looked like it was getting through.

The instructions to the marksmen had to change.

Then they'd heard the noise and they knew it was too late.

The killer had run out of the bar, gun in hand, the marksmen probably
wouldn't have had a choice even if the orders had been changed.

A race against time. Reading everything in the killer's apartment, in
his trailer, in his car. Listening again to the interviews with
everyone who knew him. Mulder had submerged himself in the data,
drowning in words, looking for the insight that would take them to
the kidnapper's victims.

And it had. It had taken a week to find the three who had been seized
at the last full moon. But they had found them. Trapped in crates in
farm buildings, two alive, one dead. The one who had died had been
alive only a few hours before the police had got to her. Mulder had
kept on working. Anything to keep his thoughts away from a young girl
who had been lying, waiting for help, for over three weeks in the
crate that became her coffin. He'd called Scully that night but she
wasn't home, he'd called her cellular but had heard the noise of
people talking, laughing in the background and knew he couldn't talk
to her. The dead girl had died of her untreated injuries and maybe
from the added stress of having had no food or drink for a week and
only minimal rations for two weeks before.

Mulder led the hunt for the other nine, they'd been taken earlier and
he didn't expect them to be alive, they had been replaced by the
kidnapper at the next full moon. Finding the bodies had taken another
week. Eight bodies and the crate that had housed the ninth. But the
ninth was mostly missing, animals had gnawed into the crate and eaten
most of the remains. Mulder had sat and explained to the parents
about the fingerprints in the crate and why they needed some of their
son's things to get fingerprints for comparison. Some of the parents
had looked almost relieved when they heard that the bodies had been
found. Mulder understood that, how maybe having the body to grieve
over could be better than not knowing.

Four weeks on the case and every minute had been misery. And the last
two weeks had been hell. He'd let the autopilot keep him moving,
scarcely sleeping, eating nothing more demanding than a burger. He
hadn't paused for breath in four weeks. He'd arrived back in his
apartment and had slept for three days.

Today he'd gone back to the office. The words had spilled out
straight into the report.

And Scully had arrived and smiled and told him. Getting married? The
dagger went in. Not a sudden thing, an old flame, a friend, who'd
become a lover? The blade cut deeper. Relocating to San Francisco?
The knife twisted.

He knew he should be pleased. She deserved a life of her own, she
deserved safety, she deserved love. So he sat and looked pleased. His
autopilot had come to his rescue again.

-------------

Dana Scully read the report and shivered. She'd heard everyone else's
views on the case. Brilliant job. After three months of no progress.
Mulder had shown up and a week later they knew the killer's name.
They'd even got back some of the kids. Miraculous. Spooky.

Now she read his notes. He'd dissected his actions, exposed the
errors. The details missed. The clues misinterpreted. The things that
would have told them sooner that the kids were alive and led them to
their prisons.

She thought about their talk this morning. Their talk? She didn't
remember him saying a word. Had she really been so blind? So full of
excitement. If only he'd said. If only he'd not looked so pleased for
her.

She picked up her phone but just ended up leaving a message on the
machine. She tried his cellular, but it was switched off. She went to
his apartment and waited.

---------

3am - MULDER'S APARTMENT

Mulder saw her car outside. He stayed in his car, getting his body,
his face, his thoughts under control. Eventually he unlocked the
door. He wasn't surprised to see her lying on his couch, a magazine
open on the floor where she had dropped it when she fell asleep. Her
eyes had started to open as he unlocked the door.

"Hi Scully, how you doing?"

"I'm fine. "

"So how come you're asleep on my couch?"

"I just wanted to talk to you, I couldn't get you on the phone."

He shrugged apologetically. "Flat battery."

"I read your case report, I'm sorry, I had no idea how hard it had
been."

"It's ok. We did what we could. Just not good enough."

"No. You're blaming yourself. No one else could have done better. No
one."

He shrugged, then sighed slightly. "Even if that were true, it's not
the point. I could have done better."

She stared at him, looking for something to say, finally asking. "Do
you want me to leave?"

Mulder breathed in sharply. That question could be interpreted two
ways. He chose to answer the easy one. "We can talk tomorrow. It's
very late. If you don't want to drive, you're welcome to stay. Take
the bedroom, I'll sleep out here." He paused and the words slipped
out. "Unless he's the jealous type, wouldn't want to get you into
trouble for spending the night in another man's bed." He regretted it
as soon as he said it.

"You're not ano....." She stopped the words quickly. "You're my
partner."

This time the autopilot let him down. "I think you'll find that I'm
not. I'm the man you used to work with."

Dana Scully tried to read his face, but it was a brick wall. After a
long silence. She picked up her jacket and said goodnight.

------------

Dana tried to give her driving as much attention as she could. How
could he do that to her? How could she do this to him?

END of Part 1

===========================================================================

From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: Break Out - 2/6
Date: 19 Apr 1996 20:42:09 GMT

Legally:
The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013
and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've
borrowed them for fun not profit.

Part 2/6
-----------

THE AD's OFFICE

Skinner was staring over at the subdued looking Agent facing him
across the desk. "I read your report. You're wrong. Hindsight is a
wonderful thing but it's a dangerous method to use to beat yourself
up. No one else spotted that stuff, I don't think anyone could have."

"It's not about anyone else. It's about me. I know what I'm capable
of and it's better than that."

Skinner swallowed at the calmly spoken words and the neutral
expression on Mulder's face and the sharp contrast it made with the
statement he'd just heard. Argument and reasoning weren't going to
help. "So what do you want to do? Do you need some time off?"

Mulder already knew his answer on this one. "No Sir. But I would like
to spend a little time away from the X-Files and outside VCS. Just
until my concentration's right again." His next mistake could get
someone killed. He knew that most likely the someone would be him. He
might have taken the chance, but he couldn't take the chance that it
might be somebody else. He didn't want to look at any more dead
bodies for a while.

They sat and talked about temporary reassignment. Bank fraud. Some
intellectual exercise until he was ready to go back to his normal
work.

Skinner went along with it. It solved a problem too, how to avoid
Mulder working alone on the X-Files once Scully moved out.

---------------

Scully's move to San Francisco was trouble free. She and Mulder had
exchanged a few words. Polite and respectful, cold and evasive.

Mulder was surprised how easily he took to the bank fraud case. Like
a crossword puzzle. He enjoyed the game.

He was surprised how easily he slipped into the case team. They were
suspicious of him, he had a reputation after all. At first the
rumours buzzed. Finally cracked up, last stop before the psychiatric
hospital? Big row with Dana Scully, a lovers' tiff? No one would work
with from VCS, so Skinner had sent him to a job he would hate to
force him to resign?

But he was quiet, polite, hard working and sharp and he was happy to
let the team take the credit for the links that he had seen. He
played basketball at lunch time. He had gone out with Jenny, the
blonde accountancy specialist a couple of times. And though there was
an undercurrent of jealousy that wasn't always kept that far under
the surface there were plenty of people who liked him and even those
who didn't kept a respectful silence.

And he had never felt more lonely in his life.

He started to think about the basement office. He started to read VCS
reports on the kind of mysteries that would normally have been sent
on to him. He read about Scully's new job in San Francisco.

It was probably time to call Skinner. He didn't get the chance, the
AD called him.

Skinner tried to sound Mulder out. Congratulating him on how well he
had slipped into the fraud investigation. Asking him if he'd thought
about the future.

Mulder was no more enthusiastic about shadow boxing than his boss
was. And whilst he found the kid glove treatment an interesting
variation on the AD's normal management style, Mulder didn't want to
prolong the agony. "Sir. Is this about a particular case?"

Skinner sat back, relieved that Mulder had given him approval to ask
a direct question. "I would like you to look at a case file. If you
don't want to go out there, then you may be able to suggest a few
paths for the investigating team to start from." He tapped his
fingers on the file in front of him. "It's not an order."

Mulder looked across the table, watched the discomfort on Skinner's
face. This was serious, Skinner looked genuinely upset at having to
ask Mulder for this. Of course there was no way for Skinner to have
known that he was ready to come back. Mulder had to concentrate just
to stop himself from snatching the file from his boss's hands.

Mulder sat up straight and the lights went back on behind his eyes.
"I'll read the file over and get back to you immediately. Is that
all?"

Skinner nodded and let him go.

A few seconds after Mulder walked out another man walked in. He lit a
cigarette and studied Skinner's face. "Good. I'm sure he's the best
man for the job."

----------

Mulder flicked through the pages of the file and wondered why he
hadn't heard anything about the case it was describing. Whoever was
handling it must have been keeping a very tight lid on the story.

He heard a woman's footsteps coming up from behind him, he recognized
the stiletto tap of Jenny's shoes. He leant back in his chair to make
it easier for her. She obliged by putting her hands over his eyes and
whispering "guess who?"

"Janet Reno, " he suggested, gently pushing her hands back to rest on
the top of his head.

She looked at the file in his hands. He quickly closed the file and
apologized. Whatever she was expecting him to be looking at, pictures
of a dead body hadn't figured on her list.

She let out a brief gasp of air. "No. I'm sorry, you're busy. I
didn't know you were working on that stuff again."

"I've only just started."

He watched her leave. He waited until she was in the corridor before
he whispered goodbye. He didn't like the pictures either, but he was
so used to them. Not immune to them, he would never be that, but he
could switch them out. He looked back at the image, the body drenched
in blood, every orifice apparently spewing out more. And he'd made a
joke when she arrived. No, she wouldn't understand it, she'd think he
was either extraordinarily callous or insane. He didn't blame her.

It wasn't the condition of the dead that had made Skinner talk to
Mulder, it was the choice of victims and the eye witness accounts.

The three dead were all scientists from what had once been a
government chemical weapons development lab but which was now a
chemical weapon defences lab.

The eye witnesses were credible, it was what they witnessed that
wasn't.

The first to die was a man. Playing cards with a group of friends in
a hotel bedroom, they'd seen their friend walk into the bathroom and
he never came out. No windows, no vents bigger than six inch
diameter, no false ceiling, no false floor, no access. The friends
had heard nothing, no screams, no struggle. They'd gone over and
knocked on the door thirty minutes after he went in. When they got no
answer they forced the lock, scared he'd had a heart attack or
something. And he was dead, blood everywhere. Either all five of the
witnesses were lying or....

Or what? The investigation was frozen at that point.

And so had the investigations into the other two deaths at the Lab.
Different witnesses, different MO's, but similarly disfigured
victims. The other thing each killing had in common was plenty of
witnesses all of whom should have seen the attacker and the fact that
none of them had.

Irresistible. Mulder would have taken the job anyway, he needed the
'exercise'. But the case had really interesting, really extreme,
possibilities. He found himself smiling. Six weeks working on fraud,
a month on the trail of that horrible kidnapper and his victims. At
least ten weeks since he'd last actually felt like smiling. Ten weeks
since he'd last worked with Scully. He kept that thought at bay.
She'd told him she was leaving a month and a half ago, she'd moved
house a week later. The Bureau could be startlingly efficient at
times.

He would be ok. He could work on this alone. He'd go and see Skinner.

--------------

Dana Scully looked around the temporary home that the Bureau had
arranged for her. They'd been so efficient. She tried not to regret
the speed they'd moved on her behalf. She tried not to regret the
speed everything had changed. She was still shocked by what she'd
done, she didn't act on impulse.

She tried to keep reminding herself that if things had changed then
they'd changed for the better. She was currently on a temporary
assignment, controlling the autopsy team. She was in line for a
promotion as soon as they could get things sorted out. They really
needed her out here. They were delighted she'd taken the job. She
wasn't going to be continually living out of a suitcase, trekking
from one bad motel to the next, from one danger to the next.

She had a man who loved her. A man who loved her so much that he
wasn't even offended when she said that she would move into the
Bureau's accommodation temporarily to get her bearings. To give both
of them time and space to get things right.

She puzzled over what things weren't right. She was a little
homesick. She hadn't made a habit of seeing her mother, or other
friends and family, that frequently when she was in DC but she always
had that choice. Unfamiliar places, unfamiliar people.

The work didn't make her pulse race or her brain go into overdrive.
Not that it wasn't demanding, it was. Not that it wasn't worthwhile,
it was. And the thing she had secretly craved when she worked on the
X-Files, peer group recognition, she was getting that, bucket loads
of it. But the work was mundane and more distressing because of it.
She was investigating tragedies. She knew that she always had been,
but they had been mysteries as well as tragedies. And now she
realized that the mystery had always helped her cope.

And Mulder, the man who had been the biggest thing in her life for
three years, she'd just said goodbye to him and walked away. She'd
tried to phone him and he was polite in his replies, he was nothing
if not good mannered. But she had lost her best friend. She kept
thinking of all the people she'd lost, all the people he had lost. It
was hard to believe how easily she'd given him up.

She let her eyes return to the file. An emergency request from
Washington. She let herself have a secret smile at that. The same
people who had always wanted to close down the X-Files were quick
enough to recognize when its Agents had something they needed.

----------

X-FILES OFFICE

Mulder scrambled through the filing cabinets looking for a couple of
old records that the case had reminded him of. He turned to look at
the noise in the doorway and was surprised to see the figure of the
Assistant Director emerge from the shadows of the corridor.

Skinner spoke first. "I just wanted to check a couple of things
before you leave."

"Of course."

"When Agent Scully left, were you two on good terms?"

"I've no problem working with her on the case."

"That's not what I asked."

Mulder said nothing, just shrugged and feigned incomprehension.

Skinner moved on. "There's a lot of interest in this case, at the
highest levels. You know what that means?"

Mulder half smiled and said tightly. "That I should watch my back?"

"The Bureau wasn't first choice for this job. You were."

"Nice to be so highly regarded." He paused, let his eyes drift closed
for a couple of seconds. "It's ok Sir. Thanks for the advice."

Skinner nodded and left the office.

Mulder turned back to the old files. He'd smelled cigarette smoke in
Skinner's office when he'd been handed the case initially and given
who the victims were, if it had also been passed to the NSA or some
other group it wouldn't have been that surprising. Still, it was nice
of Skinner to deliver the warning personally.

END of Part 2

================================================

From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: Break Out - 3/6
Date: 19 Apr 1996 20:56:26 GMT

Legally:
The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013
and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've
borrowed them for fun not profit.

-----------
Part 3/6

-------------

A MOTEL IN NEVADA

Mulder lay back on his motel bed, half watching a baseball game on
the TV, half reading the files again. He sat up at the tap on the
door. "Who is it?"

"Hi Mulder, it's me, Scully."

He smiled, as if she had to say her name, as if he would fail to
recognise her voice. "Door's open."

He had played out this reunion a couple of dozen times in his head.
Professional but friendly. Not the polite disinterest that had
characterised their last few attempts to talk.

Scully walked slowly in. "You left the door open Mulder? Has someone
replaced you with a clone?"

He smiled at her attempt to lighten the meeting. "No point being
paranoid Scully. The place is swarming with Feds and NSA types."

Scully smiled in response. The day he didn't feel paranoid in a motel
swarming with 'Feds and NSA types' would be the day when he had been
replaced with a clone.

She cast an eye over him. He looked good. Like he'd had a month of
eating healthy food, getting enough sleep and the right kind of
exercise. She felt almost disappointed, she had hoped he'd missed her
more than that. She quickly put that thought out of her mind.

He scanned her appearance. Same Dana Scully except she looked a
little nervous and a little tired. He could understand the nervous,
he was nervous too. But tired, why would she look tired? He thought
of a reason and suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

He looked at her hands. No rings. "When's the wedding?"

She woke up from her daydream, startled by his question. "Wedding?"
She sat down. "Oh. Yes. We've not fixed a date yet, too much to do
just settling in to San Francisco." She paused. "The Bureau's been
great, they had an apartment sorted out for me to cover for my first
six months. Robert's got his own place." She felt a blush start to
rise in her cheeks and wondered why she'd been in such a hurry to
explain that she wasn't living with Robert.

Mulder felt slightly nauseous. She hadn't been in a hurry to get
married when she left Washington, she'd just been in a hurry to get
away from him and the X-Files. Did that mean if Robert hadn't come
along, something else would have done as just as good an excuse? That
hurt even more than blaming it on old love and rampaging hormones.

Mulder started to talk about the case.

----------------

Mulder and Scully were walking along the corridors of the research
labs. Mulder wasn't surprised at the fuss that had been kicked up
when he insisted on interviewing more of the victims' colleagues.
People had pointed to the bland piles of interview notes that had
already been gathered by the other investigators. They told him about
the waste of time, the duplication of effort, the need for him to
focus on the main problem, how the assailant got past the eye
witnesses. Mulder told them to mind their own business.

The large man in the ill fitting dark blue suit tried to stop him
again, rested a hand on his shoulder. He was representing the
interests of the intelligence community, or at least that was how
he'd introduced himself. "Mulder. Agent Mulder. Look, I understand
your need to handle the case your own way. But the problem's too big
and we need a solution too quick for you to go independent on it.
Can't we find a balance here, some sort of compromise?"

Mulder turned, eyes flaming with annoyance. "Get your hands off me."
The other man pulled back. "Agent Scully and I are under orders to
solve this case and unless you and your friends get out of our way,
I'm on the next flight back to Washington. And I would be happy to
use you as a reference to explain my action. Run your own
investigation if you like. But it's not the same one that I'm working
on."

The man tried to give him one last spiel about sharing ideas,
resources, evidence for the benefit of the victims. Mulder almost
laughed. The man walked away muttering obscenities about Mulder's
dubious parentage.

Scully studied Mulder carefully, at last she hissed at him. "I hope
you've developed a bullet proof skin. He is royally pissed with you.
We might need them later, or did you not think of that?"

Mulder took the reproach in his stride. "Yes. And they might need us
later."

She softened her tone. "Why don't you want them around? What's your
theory?"

He spoke carefully. "I think we are looking at more than one crime."

-----------------

Getting rid of the FBI people wasn't so straight forward. For one
thing they did need their help. For another, Clarke, the Agent in
Charge from the local office was actually a rarity, a friend of
Mulder's. He was only too willing to go along with Mulder's approach.
Whatever backup or help they wanted, but no interference, parallel
investigations with as much information flow as it needed. And only a
small favour needed to close the deal.

They gossiped over breakfast, Clarke was smiling. "Aw come on Mulder.
It's no big deal. He's desperate to work with you. His birthday's
coming up, how could you disappoint a little kid like that? He'll
make a good gopher, you can send him out for pizzas or something.
Give him a day, you can send him back afterwards." Clarke paused and
looked more serious. "No. He's ok, he's not a complete rookie, knows
how to look after himself. He just reckons he'll learn a lot from
working with you. And he's right."

Mulder held up his hands in mock surrender. "Ok. Ok. Flattery will
get you everywhere. One day."

Clarke nodded and walked away.

Mulder looked at Scully and shrugged.

An hour later they were walking into the briefing room to meet the
other Agents and explain how the case was going to be handled. Scully
looked Mulder over a couple of times and tried to work out what was
wrong.

Then she got it. He'd changed suits. He'd counted up the grey suits
over breakfast and had got rid of the grey suit he was wearing in
favour of a rather elegant pin stripe. Scully smirked to herself.
She'd always enjoyed the contradictions in his character. The way he
could veer between being oblivious to the way he looked and sounded
to other people, to being, well there was no other word for it, just
plain vain.

She looked across at him. "Power dressing Mulder?"

"It's a side effect of spending a few weeks on bank fraud."

"Mixing with too many financiers?"

"No. Too much time to go shopping."

She didn't hide the smile.

They left the room with Agent Alex Jackson in tow. Mulder wouldn't
have agreed to this if he'd known the guy was called Alex, but knew
it was irrational to dislike him just for that.

They were touring the crime scenes again today, the first gave
nothing new. In the car as they drove back to the scene of the second
killing, they started to bounce round some ideas.

Scully tapped her fingers on her knee as she spoke. "The witnesses
could have been drugged, knocked out to give the assailant time to
get in, do the murder and leave."

Mulder absentmindedly grabbed a few more sunflower seeds.
"Interesting, but not likely. If you can name a drug that would
switch on for all the witnesses at the same time and knock them out
simultaneously and that would bring them all round at exactly the
same instant, I'll buy you a bottle of champagne." He smiled smugly.

She frowned. "So let's hear your brilliant theory then."

"I haven't got one."

"Hmph." She exclaimed triumphantly.

"I've got several." He paused to give her chance to groan.

Agent Jackson moved in closer to the front seats. He'd been trailing
them like a puppy dog for the last few hours. They were only just
beginning to relax.

Mulder ran his fingers back through his hair and started to go
through options. "Could be just straight misinterpretation of the
scenes of crime. There is an alternative point of access and it just
got overlooked."

Scully nodded her head and thought of Eugene Tooms.

"It was a shape changer, it turned itself into a snake, wriggled
under the carpet and turned back into its humanoid form when it found
the victim."

Scully threw her head back in disgust.

"They used a matter transporter and beamed straight into where the
victim stood."

She groaned.

"Yeah, suppose not, that's Star Trek isn't it." He paused. "Ok, so
the killer was wearing a special cloaking device that made him
invisible." He paused again. "Oh sorry, that's Star Trek as well."

She snorted out a groan.

"The witnesses memories of the incidents may have been tampered
with."

She snorted again, but no groan this time.

"The witnesses may be deliberately lying and may have been helped to
beat the lie detector test."

Scully paused to reflect on a couple of Mulder's theories. They were
within the limits of extreme possibility. Maybe at the outer limits
of science and technology but not impossible.

Jackson leaned in. "I don't think they were lying."

Mulder and Scully both turned to look at him, they had almost
forgotten he was with them, he'd been so quiet. Mulder turned back to
the road and asked him why not.

"They were just so scared, so shocked. And wouldn't they have to go
along with things completely if they were trying to beat the lie
detector?"

Scully replied. "If they'd been trained to beat the machine they
could have acted the part for you as well."

"Well yes, they could, but... I'm usually able to tell when people
are lying. And one of the witnesses, well I knew she was having an
affair with one of the dead guys and she wouldn't just go along with
a cover up."

Scully studied the young Agent intently. "I didn't read about an
affair in the interview notes."

"Well it didn't come up in the interview." He paused, regretting he'd
ever started his conversation. "She didn't actually say it."

Mulder looked hesitantly at Scully and suggested it was time they
took a coffee break, he pulled in at the next cafe.

Agent Jackson didn't like being the centre of attention. He wished
he'd had the sense to keep quiet. The sensation was of being laid out
on the examination table ready to be dissected.

Mulder stared at him. Jackson shifted uncomfortably, they were going
to start with the lasers then. Mulder stirred his coffee and asked a
one word question. "So?"

Jackson tried to explain to the best of his ability that he could
always tell when people were lying and when they were holding things
back. That in the past he'd beat the Bureau lie detectors at spotting
truth from half truth.

Scully looked at the nervous figure and started to offer him escape
routes. "Most people think they can do that. Just about anybody in
law enforcement would claim to know better than a lie detector. It's
nothing unusual."

Jackson agreed enthusiastically. "Yes. It's nothing unusual. Just a
hunch, I don't think I'm any different to anybody else."

Mulder relented, let Jackson off the hook and suggested they go and
talk the witness who Jackson claimed had been having an affair.

The woman didn't look surprised to see them. Scully got her talking
and she quickly confirmed her relationship to the dead man. She
pointed at the photograph of her husband on the table and mentioned
the dead man's wife. She tried to keep the tears in check.

They found out nothing more about the night of the death. They found
out a lot about the dead man and his work.

As they headed back to the car, Mulder turned to Jackson. "Good call.
Anyone else you reckon we need to see?"

Jackson looked embarrassed and shook his head.

Scully smiled at him. "Sometimes you have to go with your hunches.
Don't hesitate to throw your ideas in."

Jackson slumped into the back of the car, determined to think before
he spoke, he was here to listen and learn and not to look like an
idiot.

Mulder was glad to have had Jackson on the case that day, the woman
was a breakthrough. He was also glad to drop Jackson off at 6 O'Clock
and get Dana Scully to himself. He needed to go over the information
again and talk about what he really thought of the case.

END of Part 3

=================================================

From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: Break Out - 4/6
Date: 19 Apr 1996 21:03:16 GMT

Legally:
The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013
and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've
borrowed them for fun not profit.

-----------
Part 4/6

-------------

DANA SCULLY'S MOTEL ROOM

"It's a cover up, Scully."

"Melodramatic, Mulder. Sure there are people hiding things here but
cover up makes it sound like some sort of officially sponsored
conspiracy. If that was the case why would they ask for us?"

"You want some starting points? How about there's a faction fight
underway and they don't mind if we get stuck in the crossfire. Or
perhaps you'd prefer, they want to make it look like a real
investigation so we make good stooges."

"But why? You think that woman was right about them losing that
virus?"

"Maybe. No one else mentioned any kind of security problem at the
lab. It's certainly not officially acknowledged. They wouldn't have
known that he'd have told her about it. So they wouldn't have warned
her not to say anything to us."

She rested her hands on her head and leant back in her chair, he was
probably right but where was it taking them, what did they do next?
She looked over at him and realized that without actually thinking
about it she was copying his body language, she sat up straight and
put her hands on the table.

Mulder looked at her movements and tried to pretend he hadn't
noticed. They'd been together for two days and it was like they'd
never been apart. Except for the changes, except that this was just a
temporary thing. He swallowed back the thought and carried on with
the work.

They had learned almost nothing at the lab, only that the three dead
scientists all worked in the 'biological' research block. But the
published papers from the three, the subject of their Doctorate
dissertations, the conferences they attended, were consistent with
work on viruses.

Mulder spoke quietly, his voice fading to little more than a whisper.
"But if there's a cover up underway, why the dramatic killings. Why
not just plain old executions? Why not plain old 'suicides' or
'accidents' ?"

Scully responded quickly. "Because the killings aren't part of the
cover up."

They sat and puzzled over the implications.

The experiments the scientists were engaged in might have been legal
or illegal under international law, they were unlikely to get any
evidence either way. One of the viruses they'd created had been
bottled up and stolen, certainly illegal, even if it was done by
another branch of government, transport of active material from the
Lab was strictly controlled. No one at the Lab was talking about the
theft. Someone had killed the three scientists and had apparently
chosen a very public way to do it. And someone had decided to
obliterate the evidence from the witnesses minds.

Mulder went back to puzzling over the killer's motives. He leant back
on the table. "I wonder if there have been any other 'accidents'
amongst people at the Lab in the last few months."

Scully nodded. She had wondered much the same thing.

Eventually Mulder headed back to his own room and Scully tried to
settle down to sleep.

Her mind was racing through the case notes, reinterpreting the
evidence in the light of the new ideas. A stolen virus. Someone
covering up. Someone hiding evidence. And someone killing.

The phone rang. She picked it up and heard Robert's voice. This had
been her third night away and she hadn't even phoned him. She'd
thought of it a couple of times of course but never when she was in a
position to actually do something about it. She started to apologize.

Robert was very understanding, he knew she must be dreadfully busy.
He just wanted to know that she was ok. They spoke for a few minutes
and said goodnight.

She could imagine Robert painting the house, paying the mortgage,
washing the car. A perfect husband. She could imagine him changing
the baby, fondly displaying family photos on his desk, taking the
kids on their first fishing trip. A perfect father. The thing she had
trouble with was imagining herself in the same photographs as him.
Sleep took a long time to come to her rescue.

-------------

The following morning a heavy lidded Dana Scully found herself across
the table from a remarkably cheery looking Fox Mulder. "Ok, Mulder so
what gives? Why are you looking so pleased with yourself?"

"Unusually good coffee?"

She smiled.

He puzzled over her smile. He usually had to work a lot harder than
that to make her smile. Maybe absence did make the heart grow fonder.
Or maybe it was the knowledge that they only had to work together for
a few days. That thought sobered him up pretty sharply.

He explained his theory. Someone with a grudge, a motive to strike
out at the people working with the virus, had seized a sample of it.
The same person had killed the three scientists. He and Scully had
been called in to get the killer but actually also to recover the
virus. Though of course that last part wasn't in the briefing.

The killer had also stolen one of the Lab's designer drugs and used
it to wipe the key moments from the witnesses minds.

Scully started to offer him a bottle of champagne if he could name a
drug that had that action. Then she decided that while he might not
be able to name it, she was pretty sure that he had first hand
experience of it.

And now some semi official government faction was trying to
obliterate the evidence of the loss of the chemicals from the Lab.
And someone was hoping that Mulder and Scully would do the hard work
of tracking the killer and his flask of virus.

Three things were clear. If they found the killer they were in danger
from him and the virus. It was almost certain that someone already
knew an awful lot more than they did about the missing virus. And
finally, the someone else, was probably on every bit as 'official' a
payroll as they were.

Scully thought it over and looked back at him seriously and repeated.
"So, why are you looking so pleased with yourself?"

He smiled back at her, "I think the technical term is manic."

She nodded sympathetically, a slight smile playing in her eyes.

Back at the Bureau's morning briefing they kept quiet. They
dispatched Agent Jackson back to reinterview the eye witnesses. Maybe
one of them had remembered something or had something more to tell.
But Mulder and Scully would travel alone today, they didn't want any
more unknowns in the delicate work they had to do.

--------------

WASHINGTON - office of Assistant Director Skinner

Skinner circled the room uncomfortably, his visitor was certainly not
welcome. The smell of cigarettes was bad enough but it was the
unmistakable odour of death and deceit that he carried that made
Skinner feel sick at his presence.

The visitor spoke through a cloud of smoke. "I really expected your
people to have come up with something by now. I'm disappointed."

"Perhaps if you'd given me something more to brief them with?"

"Have they said they don't have enough information?"

Skinner scowled, "I haven't heard from them."

"Don't your subordinates feel obliged to keep you posted on
progress?"

Skinner swallowed his irritation. "I'll call them."

His Agent picked up his phone on the second ring. "Mulder."

Skinner's voice came through loud and clear. "Agent Mulder, I'd
expected a report from you by now."

"I don't think I've got a suitable report for a phone call. We're
investigating a theft as well as the murders."

Skinner's visitor looked up and nodded his approval.

Skinner softened his tone. "Ok. That's all I need for now."

Mulder tried to picture the scene in Skinner's office that had driven
that terse dialogue. His image of it was surprisingly accurate.

---------------

As Scully and Mulder headed back into the offices of the research
Lab, they haggled over what they could achieve.

"Come on Mulder, I know you don't trust anyone but this is just basic
police work. Three people who work together die, you look for a
coworker or someone they used to work with. The Bureau's been through
the personnel files already. And I bet our friends from the
intelligence community have as well. What makes you think we'll do
any better?"

"Don't know. Do you feel lucky?"

"That man was right, this is a duplication of effort."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Well we could be helping Agent Jackson try and get more from the
witnesses. We could reinterview the colleagues, focus on what ideas
people have got for people with grudges."

"We've already interviewed the people the victims worked with and
they're so scared of giving the game away on the missing chemicals
they won't talk. They all know how to reach us if they change their
minds. And Jackson doesn't need our help, he knows when people are
telling the truth." A faint smiled flickered over his face as he said
it, he had wanted to ask her about Jackson.

She knew what his smile was about. "Jackson's just a good listener
and he's got good instincts, a good behaviourist."

"Good, glad we've got that sorted out."

She shook her head in disgust and they headed into the Lab.

Four hours later. Mulder was starting to view this as a duplication
of effort, but he couldn't believe that the evidence wasn't here. He
just couldn't work out where to look.

Prior to the trio of murders everything looked good. No recent deaths
of people on the payroll. No medical retirements. No accidents. A
model of a healthy workplace. He was running out of ideas.

END of Part 4

===========================================================

From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: Break Out - 5/6
Date: 19 Apr 1996 21:09:39 GMT

Legally:
The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013
and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've
borrowed them for fun not profit.

-----------
Part 5/6

-------------

Mulder's phone came to the rescue, he answered immediately. "Mulder."

A nervous voice came down the line. "It's Alex Jackson here, I might
have something. It's..."

Mulder broke him off sharply. "Ok, how long would it take for you to
get to the Lab. It will be easier to talk face to face."

If Jackson had something, Mulder didn't want to hear it blasted over
the airways.

They met outside the building little more than ten minutes later.
Mulder and Scully looked intently at the young Agent fidgeting in
front of them.

Jackson shifted his weight again. "I don't know, it might be
nothing."

Mulder tried not to sound impatient. "It might be."

"Well, it's this rumour. There's a rumour says that a couple of people
got contaminated by a some sort of biologically active sample in an
accident a couple of years ago."

"Did the rumour say the names of who might have been involved?"

"Sort of, one of them was one of the guys who got murdered but the
other one was some sort of paramedic who worked on medical monitoring
of the other staff, they didn't know the name."

"Sounds like it might be just what we're looking for." Mulder paused
and smiled. "You're good Jackson, really good."

The three of them headed back to the personnel files but the search
was easier now. Medical staff. Any kind of absence.

And there it was, Darren Davies. Two months ago he'd taken a week's
personal leave to help his wife get over the death of their three
month old baby, their first child. And now, he was on vacation.

They chased and harried and searched and questioned. And discovered
the child had died of early complications in his treatment for an
unusual cancer. And whether the cause of the cancer was his father's
exposure to the chemical or not, all three Agents were happy to go
with a hunch that Darren Davies might believe it was.

The Agents went to visit the house but weren't surprised to find it
empty.

So now they were back to hunches.

Why steal the virus? Only to extract further revenge.

Who would be a target for the revenge? Well, it looked like they'd
left town so it wasn't someone else at the Lab. Perhaps they wanted
to go higher up the chain of responsibility to go and get the people
who wanted the work done.

The more they talked, the more they convinced themselves that Darren
Davies and his wife had left for Washington. A search of airline
records gave them the flight details.

They thanked Jackson and sent him home. Dana Scully looked up to find
Fox Mulder staring intently at her, he quickly averted his eyes. "Ok,
Mulder I know what you're about to say. And before you make any
psychic jokes, I've seen that coming as well."

She paused. "You're going to tell me there are a lot of Agents back
in Washington and now we've done the difficult bit I might just as
well go home."

Silence.

"Look Mulder I don't like walking off a job that's not finished and
this isn't finished."

He wanted her to go home and be safe and happy. But he also wanted
her to stay with him for as long as possible. He wanted to argue. But
he couldn't remember how to.

---------

Mulder and Scully caught the next flight back to DC.

Mulder tried to summon up the nerve to talk to her but the effort of
will involved looked like it was going to be too much.

Finally, after their plane had been circling above Washington for
twenty minutes waiting for permission to land, he actually spoke.
"I'm sorry about the way I acted when you told me you were leaving.
You're entitled to a life of your own. Thanks for working with me on
this one."

Scully listened to the sudden flurry of words. She'd been working on
a little speech of her own but if she said it now it would sound like
some weird parody of his, so she tried to make it sound like a reply.
"You acted so comfortable with it when I told you I was leaving, I
was insensitive I didn't know how bad that kidnapping case had been
for you. When I realized, the damage had been done. I'm glad we got
the chance to work together again so soon. It's a chance to put
things right."

Mulder felt sick < a chance to put things right >. What she meant was
a chance to say goodbye properly, no messy loose ends. Dana Scully,
ever the tidy mind. Whatever enthusiasm he had to talk swiftly
disappeared and he pulled back in his seat to wait for the landing.

Dana Scully watched him pull away from her again and wondered what
she had said. She'd been trying to sort out her thoughts and feelings
but she was trying to do it in the middle of a very tough case, a
dangerous case with overtones of conspiracy and cover up. And her
thoughts kept drifting to a nice job, a nice apartment and a nice man
waiting for her in San Francisco. And to the fact that she regretted
sacrificing Mulder and the X-Files to get them. And the way she'd
started to worry that the gain wasn't worth the pain.

It felt strange to Scully to arrive back in Washington and have
Mulder drop her off at a hotel. Of course her apartment had been
relet almost immediately she moved out. She lay on her bed and
pretended to watch the TV.

She's been more excited in the last few days on this case than she
had been in the last two months of steady, impressive, successful
work. She'd got more of a kick out of swapping jokes with her partner
and remembering his quirks than from all the days and nights she'd
spent getting to know Robert.

She didn't like to think about what it implied. Somewhere in the back
of her mind a voice was whispering that she had rushed into it. That
something else, someone else could have provided her with an excuse
just as easily as Robert had done. She had rushed into it. She'd
better be absolutely sure if she was planning on rushing out of it.

Had she really been that desperate to get away from the X-Files and
away from Mulder? And if she was, why had she just flown back to
Washington instead of returning home?

Her cellular rang and she quickly grabbed it. It was Robert, he'd
tried the motel in Nevada and they said she'd already left. Where was
she, why hadn't she said she was moving, was she ok, when would she
arrive home?

She tried to relax and enjoy the sound of his voice and enjoy the
tenderness in his words. But she kept resenting the words, the
intrusion into her thoughts, the questioning of her actions. He
sounded almost paternalistic, almost proprietorial, almost
patronizing. She was shocked by her reaction and knew she had to get
out of the call quickly, she feigned a yawn and claimed that she
needed her sleep.

She rolled back onto her pillow and wondered how she'd got in this
mess.

===============

Office of AD Skinner

The APB with photos of the suspects had gone out the previous
evening, issued after Mulder's telephoned request sent in before they
flew home. It carried strict instructions to follow and monitor and
immediately report on any sightings, but not to try and approach or
stop the suspects without assistance.

Mulder had driven over to see Skinner after dropping Scully at her
hotel and thirty minutes later there were coded notifications of the
threat going out across Washington.

As Mulder and Scully sat in Skinner's office the following morning,
they were already feeling vaguely redundant to the operation.

Skinner leant slowly back, and played with the spectacles he'd
removed a few minutes earlier. "So you think they are here and
looking for the people who sanctioned the project the scientists were
working on."

Mulder answered. "Yes but the stuff Davies has stolen isn't the same
thing he thinks poisoned him and killed his baby. He's acted now
because his baby died, but also because he thinks the current project
is even worse than the old one."

Skinner nodded slowly. "Do you know what they've got?"

Scully took over. "Only that it's a virus. No one at the Lab would
admit to anything and we didn't want to talk about this by phone to
get you to put pressure on for the details to be released to us."

"Why not?"

Mulder picked up. "Because there were so many different shades of
blue and grey and black suits running round the Lab that we couldn't
tell which ones were supposed to be the good guys. And because, much
as I'd like to put the story on the cover of tomorrow's Washington
Post, Agent Scully doesn't think that it's a very good idea."

Skinner nodded. This was the Fox Mulder he recognized, not the
disconsolate, subdued version he'd seen in the office just a few
weeks earlier. Maybe a change is as good as a rest. Maybe he'd take a
few weeks break in bank fraud. He quickly put that thought out of his
mind. Mulder and Scully wondered what the quick smile that had passed
across Skinner's stern features actually meant.

"So. Any theories?" Skinner said lightly.

Scully took up first. "What all the bodies had in common was a set of
cuts. The mutilations were to make blood pour from the month and
nose. The killer may have been trying to mimic the appearance of a
victim of the ebola virus."

Skinner let his head rock back for an instant. "How much of the virus
as he got?"

"Too much." Was Mulder's simple reply.

They thought about the killer's target.

Skinner let them leave. His parting words. "Be available."

END of Part 5

=============================================================

From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: Break Out - 6/6
Date: 19 Apr 1996 21:42:49 GMT

Legally:
The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013
and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've
borrowed them for fun not profit.

-----------
Part 6/6

-------------

Mulder tapped Scully lightly on the arm. "Let's go for a walk."

"What's up? You don't actually want to go after this madman and his
virus do you?"

"How about, I don't like walking off a job that's not finished and
this isn't finished?"

She looked steadily back. "Well it will be soon."

"No. Darren Davies may be dead soon, so may his wife, they may even
get the virus back ok but it won't be over."

"You're sympathies are with Davies aren't they?"

"Not with what he did. Only with why he did it. He may be mad, but he
got driven to madness."

Scully felt the same shiver of sympathy, but she spoke objectively.
"It's defensive research, how to deal with toxins, poisons, viruses.
It's about the efficacy of breathing equipment, vaccines."

"You don't believe that. If it's all so defensive why is it so
secret. If it's all above board then why did they lie about the
security breech?"

"Because they didn't want to cause a panic by involving too many
people, one of those other groups were put on the trail of the virus
canisters. They just wanted us to identify the perpetrator. It's
understandable."

"Understandable? I don't understand what you're saying Scully, so I
certainly don't understand them. I think the chance to use defensive
research as a cover for making new weapons is irresistible to some
groups."

"You've no evidence."

"And there's a complete alphabet's worth of government agencies
who've assigned half their employees to wandering round the city
trying to take out my only witness."

Dana Scully let her eyes drop to the floor and her voice went
suddenly softer. "I'm not disagreeing, I just don't want you to run
off and do something stupid."

Mulder let himself relax a notch. "Define stupid. Then, I'll let you
know if I'm going to run off to do it." He paused. "I'm just so fed
up with having to do their dirty work. Some of the people they send
us after, they are victims too. It's not the bad ones and good ones,
it's all the shades of grey."

Scully nodded. "It wears you down. That's why I needed a break."

"A break? You'll have to define that as well, most people think of a
break as a long weekend, watching the surf hit the beach." He thought
about apologizing for the crack but didn't.

She shuffled uncomfortably and ignored the remark. "So, what can we
do?"

"Try and get to the Davies's before anyone else does."

"Any idea how?"

"Only a really stupid one. He traveled up here with his wife. She
must be grieving for the baby, we've no reason to think she's an
accomplice. He must know there's a good chance he's not going to get
out of this alive. He must know with that virus there's a good chance
of innocent people getting hurt. He's going to want to make this a
holiday for her and then get her out of town before he uncorks the
flask."

Scully didn't think the idea sounded stupid, she bounced it back at
him. "A holiday?"

"Yeah, else he'd have let loose the virus as soon as he got here and
he'd have left his wife at home where she couldn't get hurt. I think
they are on holiday, they'll have a few days together, then he'll
send her home, then he'll attack. "

She breathed out noisily. "It's a big jump to make but it could be.
So you're suggesting they might not be skulking round the back door
of the Pentagon or those other places they've got people watching."

"Joining the guided tour of the Whitehouse maybe."

"Hiding in plain view. So Mulder, are we going sightseeing?"

"Are you sure you're up for this? We won't have backup or anything."

"Of course I'm up for it. Now I live in California I'm entitled to be
a tourist in Washington."

They made plans. They knew the laws of probabilities were running
against them, but that had never stopped them before. They went on
tour.

Scully suggested some starting points, "it's their third day in town,
they've done two days visiting, what would you want to do on day
three?"

Mulder puzzled for a few seconds. "Well I'd be fed up of being force
fed guided tours and being made to walk about, I'd go somewhere with
nice places to sit and eat and look around and watch the world go
by."

Sounded plausible. Scully looked suspicious. "And what would you have
done on day one and two?"

"Same thing. I'd go somewhere with nice places to sit and eat and
just look around and watch the world go by." Scully groaned, so
Mulder turned the question round. "Anyway, you're the tourist, what
would you do?"

Scully sat and thought and decided she basically agreed with Mulder's
suggestion so they headed out for a leisurely tourist walk through
Constitution Gardens.

They dawdled their way through the steady drift of people looking for
couples, looking for faces from some photos they'd found in the
house. It wasn't going to be easy, they didn't stand much of a chance
with the plan. But they hadn't anything better to do. They could wait
for a phone call out here as easily as they could wait in the
Basement office. They didn't want to go and stand and wait around
with one of the armed units watching the likely targets. They decided
to enjoy the stroll.

They sat on a bench and drank coffee and watched the crowd. Morning
drifted into lunch, drifted into afternoon. Then Dana Scully noticed
a couple walking towards them. Not the faces, just something about
them, something about him. She couldn't have explained what she saw,
but she pointed the couple out to Mulder and they waited as the faces
they'd been looking for came into view.

Mulder looked across at Scully and nodded. She picked up her phone
and called their location in. They had to keep the couple in view and
follow them. The danger was that if they were spotted, the couple
could cut and run or worse if they had the flask with them, they
could release the contagion here in this park with its steady flow of
people.

They walked as close as they dare. Scully gave a running commentary
into the phone, trying to keep her movements as inconspicuous as
possible. The nearest unit were five minutes away if the traffic was
quiet. But the traffic wasn't quiet and switching on every siren and
light wasn't a good option.

Mulder was reasonably pleased by what he saw. Darren Davies was
wearing jeans and a T-shirt and had nowhere to hide the protective
flask that the phials of virus were carried in.

Mulder didn't want to believe that Davies was so insane that he was
carrying the phials without the flask. Mulder wanted to believe that
Davies still wanted to keep his wife safe. That while Davies might be
willing to murder, even willing to kill himself, that he wasn't
willing to kill indiscriminately. Mulder hoped he was right.

Scully watched Davies's hand resting protectively on his wife's
shoulder. She looked at the bag the woman carried, too small for the
flask, big enough for the chemical phials.

Scully wondered if she felt lucky.

And then Scully suddenly realised where they were going. A shiver ran
along her spine as she realized they were heading towards the
Smithsonian museums. Outdoors in the Gardens, if Davies suddenly
panicked and threw down the virus it would be bad. If it happened in
the museum, hundreds of people could be exposed in a matter of
seconds. Each of them carrying the contagion away to family and
friends and neighbours.

She looked at Mulder. He nodded his head in reply. They had the same
thought. They couldn't let the couple walk away from this relatively
deserted piece of green space out onto the busier walkways and on
into the even busier museum. They moved quickly to get close and then
overtake the couple, drew their guns and prepared for the
confrontation.

But the confrontation never came. The couple just stood stunned and
bewildered as they heard the shout that told them that the FBI wanted
them to stop.

The armed response team that arrived a few minutes later only had to
lead the Davies's away.

The Bio Hazard unit searched and found what they wanted in the
couple's hotel room.

Mulder and Scully followed Darren Davies and his wife to the
interview rooms. Neither Agent was surprised that they weren't
allowed to talk to them.

Scully argued on the phone with Skinner. But the note of resignation
and apology in Skinner's voice told her that it was already out of
his hands.

Mulder, to Scully's surprise, gave up first. He slipped away to go to
the Lone Gunman's office and suggested to them that they might like
to sort out a good defense attorney for the Davies's. Hitting a brick
wall was one thing, but he'd decided he had better things to do with
his day than to beat his head against one.

-------

THE BAR AT DANA SCULLY's HOTEL

Mulder sat across the table from her for a long time trying to get
the courage to ask her. The fear of the unknown involved in talking
to her was far worse than walking into a dark sewer to fight it out
with a monstrous fluke worm. The dread of injury from whatever she
might have to say, far worse than walking up to a maniac who had
killed three times and who might be carrying a flask of virus that
could kill hundreds or thousands.

He ran the opening sentence through his head a couple of dozen times.
Finally he passed it over for his autopilot to say out loud. "You
haven't told me anything about Robert." He sat back and waited for
the pain to start.

Scully straightened her jacket and played with her drink. "No. I
guess I haven't. He's a nice man."

Mulder stared at her, why was she making this so difficult. "Nice?
You're in love with this guy. You're supposed to be talking about him
all the time. Driving me mad with inane trivia about the way he
looks, the way he acts, the things he can do."

Dana sipped her drink to hide her discomfort. He was right, she was
supposed to be doing that, she tried to wriggle out of it. "It didn't
seem appropriate. We were working. I didn't think you would want to
put up with all that stuff."

"Well that's true, but we're not working now and I asked you."

She felt uncomfortably like she was on the wrong side of the
interview table. She started to describe Robert. The way he looked,
the work he did, the places they'd visited since she moved to the
west coast.

Mulder puzzled over her words. He thought for a minute that he needed
to call up Agent Jackson and ask him to listen to her and tell him
what she was hiding. But he made himself concentrate harder and knew
he didn't need to call on a third party as interpreter. Eventually,
she ran out of things to say and Mulder looked steadily back at her.
"Well, that's interesting Scully. What was that? A copy of his job
description and excerpts from a tourist guide to San Francisco."

She looked annoyed as well as shocked, she felt like he'd just
slapped her.

Mulder was annoyed with himself for upsetting her. He started to
apologize for prying. He knew she liked her privacy and he had always
tried to respect it. But he couldn't help but feel that this was
different, she should be able to tell him about Robert, tell him why
he was the best thing that had ever happened to her. "Sorry, I didn't
mean to make it sound so snide. I just want to know that you're
happy. Sorry."

She started to get up to leave the table, then she sat back down.

She looked as if she was going to cry. He didn't want to make her
cry. He felt the panic rise and wondered how to change the subject.

She started to talk. "I know Mulder. I know. I wanted so badly for it
to be the right thing for me to do. You know, getting married,
getting a life. I wanted it all so bad and then I found out I didn't
really want it after all. Well. At least not with Robert. He was just
in the wrong place at the wrong time. I haven't..." She paused. "I
haven't told him yet. I've only just worked it out myself."

She stopped and lifted her eyes from her drink to his face. She half
smiled as she spoke. "You know Mulder, you would make a very good
investigator if you set your mind to it. Has anyone ever told you
that?"

"No. Can't say they have." He gave her a weak smile. He didn't know
whether to be sad at her distress or happy that she'd had time to
work it out before it had gone further. He wanted to ask her if she
would come home now. But he didn't want to make her cry and he
thought that it might.

She looked across the table and read his thoughts. "I'm going to see
if Skinner will let me come back. It'll play havoc with my career
prospects, not that that's anything new. I guess that's the price for
acting on impulse. That and having to tell Robert what I've done."
She studied the bubbles forming in her drink.

"Let me talk to Skinner first. I think someone owes us one for this
case."

She just nodded.

--------------

Mulder watched as his boss prowled the room.

Eventually Skinner stood still and turned to look at Mulder's chair.
"Look Mulder, Agent Scully requested a transfer on personal and
professional grounds."

"Yes Sir. And if she requested a transfer back on the same grounds so
quickly it would look terrible on her record. But if you asked her to
come back because of resourcing problems then it would look fine."

Skinner paused for thought. Skinner breathed out, a short gasp of
exasperation. "What is it with you two anyway?" He hesitated, hoping
for more explanation, but got no clues from looking at Mulder. "And
this is what she wants? You're certain? She's not going to change her
mind next month?"

"Ask her. But please give her the chance."

And Skinner did.

And Dana Scully found another cost of acting on impulse, she had to
go looking for a new apartment.

END
Thankyou for reading it - hope you enjoyed it - Joann